Steve Herman, Ph.D.

I am a researcher and professor of psychology at the
University of Hawaii at Hilo. I study forensic child sexual abuse
(CSA) evaluations, with a focus on understanding the sources and
prevalence of errors in professional judgments about the validity of
allegations or suspicions of CSA. I offer workshops on the science and
practice of CSA evaluations for
psychologists, judges, attorneys, law enforcement, child protection
investigators, forensic interviewers, and others involved in the
investigation and adjudications of cases of suspected CSA. I am also available
to serve as an expert witness in criminal and civil litigation.

I have presented professional workshops on CSA evaluations in the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway, Finland,
Spain, South
Korea, Japan, and Brazil. In my workshops, I present, explain,
and interprete scientific research findings in order to help
participants 1) understand how and why professionals often make
serious mistakes when they evaluate cases of suspected child sexual
abuse and 2) learn how to recognize and prevent common errors.

To give you a better idea of the content of my workshops, please
see this
brochure
from a series of continuing education workshops that I presented in
Australia at
the invitation of the Australian Psychological Society. In addition, I created an online interactive continuing education
presentation for the American Psychological Association. An 11-minute
segment from the that presentation in which I explain and illustrate a
common reasoning error in child sexual abuse evaluations is available
here.